In the occasions in which periodic sanitation is required, CIP ozone systems generate ozone in an economical and practical way for the cleaning of pipes, loaders, tanks and equipment of all kinds used in liquid foods factories.
The CIP is a production tool that saves thousands of euros in operating expenses and downtime. The superiority of automated ozone CIPs has been amply demonstrated in three main areas:
1. Faster disinfection due to the high oxidation power of ozone.
2. Reduction in the cost of operation.
3. Reliable and repeatable treatments. Ozone reduces the total cost of
chemical products and also eliminates the need to neutralize wastewater and
generate steam for thermal sterilization. This is especially important when
using ultra-pure water for rinsing or in the case of having to incinerate the
solvent residues.
Finally with the ozone CIP each cleaning program is identical to the previous one. This repeatability is easily translated into reliability. This rapid adoption of CIP methods in the beverage, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries is partly due to strict validation requirements.
The problem that ozone presents for its use is the impossibility of packing it and storing it, because its own reactivity makes it unstable and recombines in oxygen, forcing it to manufacture it and use it "in situ", by means of ozone generators.
Ozone kills microbial species much faster than weaker oxidants like chlorine, actually 5,000 times faster. In addition, unfortunately for chlorine, the levels of action of ozone and the oxidation produced by it do not leave any byproduct or harmful residue, only oxygen. There is even another important factor to consider: "microorganisms cannot develop tolerance to ozone as they develop it to less reactive chemicals".